The internet has become a true force to reckon with, especially with the business and education sectors shoring up their resources and focus in this area. With the huddling content and rising number of users each passing year, it is a hotbed for advertising and marketing opportunities for both individuals and businesses. In a nutshell, […]
The internet has become a true force to reckon with, especially with the business and education sectors shoring up their resources and focus in this area. With the huddling content and rising number of users each passing year, it is a hotbed for advertising and marketing opportunities for both individuals and businesses. In a nutshell, the internet has become the means and the end.
Since users are making key decisions based on how things are presented to them, brands need to be proactive toward their online reputation management.
There are two ways to look at a brand’s online reputation. One is a technical and sophisticated data approach where a professional has to spend a day gathering information and then tell you about that brand’s online standing.
The other is much simpler. All you need to do is search for the name of the brand in the search engine and look at the top results. It will be a combination of an official website, listings, social media platforms, and so on. In terms of online currency, the brand seems somewhat legitimate. But, the internet has negative things too for everyone.
Brand online reputation management is an active task of keeping an eye on the online traffic surrounding the brand’s name, products, or services. In addition to this, professionals have mechanisms in place to deal with any kind of sentiment.
Many businesses, especially small and local enterprises, do not bother with professional online brand reputation management until they become viral for the wrong reasons. For instance, a small town cafe came under fire for poor hygiene because a patron made a video and published it online.
What starts with a little buzz online can hold the power to drown the whole brand. That’s why businesses need to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to brand reputation management online.
For those who still don’t know why they should go with a professional firm, here are key reasons.
Users ask Google about things more than they ask their teachers, friends, and family. The questions can range from studies and academia to trivial things like finding the current record holder for men’s 100 meters sprint.
In search engine terms, you need to rank higher in both quality and quantity because people are always looking for the next big thing. But they don’t make their decisions on instinct or impulsively. They check out online resources and find out about the company’s history and what others are thinking about it.
Based on the collected data and suggestions by other users, they make these key decisions, resulting in booming or plummeting sales for the brand.
Surviving the online world is not only about sending out positive messages and connecting with users at all social levels. It is about winning the competition.
As mentioned in the previous section, people don’t go for the new company unless they check out other businesses and learn all about that company from other users.
With a solid brand reputation management online, you can trump the competition, both through technical and social ends and ensure that your customers and prospects always reach positive content related to your brand.
Criticism and negative reviews are ubiquitous everywhere. Since everyone is entitled to their opinion and there are no physical or psychological constraints in the virtual world, you can always the industry-leading brands locking horns with naysayers.
This is the reality of doing business in an environment where claims do not need any backing to gain traction with the users.
Again, we may not do anything with the negative content, especially that is published on community-based platforms. What we can do is drown the negative sentiment with original positive sentiment through vigorous online reputation management.
Even with the billions of active users flocking around social media platforms, business websites are still considered the most authentic and updated sources of information. Prospects and customers who get leads from other platforms often end up on official websites to further investigate and ultimately place the order for the desired product or service.
So, let us start the active online reputation management process with the website of the brand.
Modern users know about the importance and somehow the underlying dynamics of search results. They know that the websites that follow the best practices promulgated by the search engines are rewarded with higher rankings.
Simply ranking higher in your business category or other related keywords can improve many metrics, including engagement via click-through, low bounce rates, and so on.
It will exert a sense of leadership and hegemony toward the users which will help them turn into paying customers.
Businesses spend a fortune to have a classy web design and structure. In addition to the time that went into actually building a website, there are many hours of brainstorming and consultation to end up with a catchy and superb website that users can like and appreciate.
Content quality on a business website is also another indicator of a company’s business philosophy and customer support. If the content is dated or poorly composed, users will know that the brand is not interested in helping prospects with updated information on products and services.
On the other hand, optimized content with easy readability and a convincing tone can do wonders for the brand and help them climb the ranks.
Ultimately, a business website should provide all the necessary information to the prospects who want to know about the history, work, online reputation, and so many more things before making the ultimate decision.
That’s why businesses should have periodical audits for their websites to find out and deal with issues, such as site crashes, slow loading times, and more.
According to estimates, there are around four billion monthly active users on Facebook alone. This provides a solid opportunity for brands to market and spread the positive word about them in these spheres.
Simply creating profiles and posting occasional content will not get your brand much traction, especially if it becomes viral for all the wrong reasons. After getting the process of profile creation, it is best to develop a solid strategy.
The foremost thing to study in this regard is the trends and algorithms that operate these platforms. It may take some time and some getting used to before your brand could capture a loyal base of online users.
Dozens of social media platforms command a whopping number of users every month. But it is not important to have a consistent presence on all of them. During the strategy phase, check out which platforms are providing better responses than others and then go with them.
For instance, brands interested in fashion and cosmetics can find the platforms like Instagram and Snapchat better suited to their needs, in terms of layout and user preferences.
One of the primary things that professionals carry out each day for online brand reputation is to monitor the sentiment targeted toward it. If the sentiment is positive and encouraging, they approach the users and show gratitude for supporting and highlighting their brand.
In case of negative sentiment, they approach the reviewers and try to stop the situation from escalating and turning into a disaster.
Professionals employ specialized tools and software such as TrustAnalytica to keep a keen eye on the internet chatter.
There is not much expertise required in highlighting positive reviews or sentiments. All you need to do is redesign it in a suitable format and publish it.
However, handling negative feedback requires expertise and patience. Instead of getting defensive and losing their cool, professionals need to apologize and ask the aggrieved person for further details about their experience.
By handling the situation cordially, they can avert a PR disaster easily.
How many times have you searched a brand name and found a listing site or review site for that brand instead of its official website? I am hoping this is a lot because that is truly the case.
Online review sites and listings have a repository of online businesses and companies that are looking for new clients and prospects. A well-rounded online reputation management strategy should have listings and review sites as active channels.
Claim & Optimize Brand Profiles
Anyone can create a business profile on websites like Yelp, TrustPilot, and Trusted Reviews. This includes the brand name, location, and timings. To get the full advantage of these platforms, brands need to claim and optimize profiles.
After that, they can add more information through multimedia, updated menus, and so on. This way, they can connect with users in a better and much deeper way, resulting in a higher online reputation index.
Plan To Deal With Negative Feedback
These websites are filled with user-generated content since they are actively looking for businesses to hire and engage with. Many people ask verified customers about pricing, timelines, professionalism, and other aspects of a company.
Brands can also experience much negativity on these platforms so it is best to have a solid plan in place to appear true and legitimate since it has much higher quality traffic than social media and the web.
Normally, it takes around one to four weeks to publish new content with positive intent and take care of negative content targeted toward a brand. The real timeline varies from one case to another.
Depending on different factors such as the locations of a business and the scope and depth of its reach across social media platforms, the cost of professional reputation management can range from $500 to $3,000 a month.
For small businesses and local enterprises, having a limited free tool to monitor their online reputation could be enough. But large corporations need a team of professionals with proprietary tools and expertise to keep a brand’s name and interests safe.
Following are the benefits of combining both artificial and human intelligence:
People love brands that can tell a story. This story helps the brand to connect with customers and prospects at a much deeper and stronger level. This makes a brand more than a business but a partner that people find easy to connect with.
Keep in mind that removing or de-indexing content from the internet is not an easy task. It takes a lot of time and effort and may be against the policies of many community-based platforms. What a brand can do is drown the negative content in the sea of positive sentiment.
A brand’s online reputation management is a continuous process where professionals employ tools and expertise to monitor and respond to online chatter targeted toward the brand. There are many ways to keep the positive content afloat while suppressing the negative one.
In this guide, we have shed ample light on the importance of online reputation management, different channels through which it can be done, and then covered other bases through frequently asked questions.
We hope that both professionals as well brand owners will find it helpful in understanding the dynamics of the process to come up with better and more effective strategies.
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